The Basic Question As an American scientist in Taiwan, what language should I speak? I am a US-educated chemical engineer who has spent a year collaborating with engineering professors and students at Yuan Ze University in Taoyuan, Taiwan. I have a bachelor’s degree in Chinese language, and had previously studied in Taiwan and China, but my language classes were all non-technical; before arriving in Taiwan, I knew how to talk about current events, but not how to talk about organic chemistry. I wasn’t sure how much of the technical vocabulary I’d be using for…

I’m a Senior Scholar and visiting researcher who studies air pollution in the College of Public Health at National Taiwan University. My primary appointment is Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech, where my research group applies quantitative methods to track the emissions, transformations, and fate of gases and particles in indoor and outdoor air. When people find out what I study, they often exclaim, “The air pollution is so bad in Taipei!” While vehicle exhaust along busy streets is often noticeable, in general, Taipei’s air quality is relatively good compared to that of other…

Introduction The study aims to define an effective method and framework for describing online biographical sketches using structured data, or, in a broad sense, “metadata” – the structured, encoded data that describe characteristics of information-bearing entities. Using artists as an example, the most widely seen structured data can be found in two primary spots on the web: (1) the “knowledge graph” provided by search engines when one searches for an artist, and (2) the “info-box” which appears on the right side of a Wikipedia article for an artist. However, in order for a knowledge graph or…

I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to be a senior research scholar working on a cross-strait research project in Taiwan and Mainland China. The World Health Organization (WHO) has designated childhood obesity as a global epidemic and a major public health issue. Overweight is defined as a body mass index (BMI) at or above the 85th percentile and below the 95th percentile for children and teens of the same age and sex. Obesity is defined as a BMI at or above the 95th percentile for children and teens of the same age and sex. For adults, overweight is…

Foreword As occupational therapists, we care about facilitating participation in meaningful occupations and improving human quality of life, especially for people with physical or mental diseases. We help patients or clients with functional restriction participate in what they want to do in daily life through the purposeful and therapeutic use of activities. Occupational therapy’s viewpoint is that human occupational performances can be categorized as social participation, daily living activities, work, leisure, etc. Social interaction has been one of the main focuses of therapy for people with impairments, such as patients with Parkinson’s disease. Patients with Parkinson’s disease…

Something about Myself I studied in the Department of Occupational Therapy at Boston University for my Master’s and Doctor of Science degrees from 1996 to 2000. In my dissertation research, I examined how to manipulate experimental conditions to enhance movement of people with Parkinson’s disease (PD). To recruit participants for my research, I went to several PD support groups and observed the active role of local support groups in the US. However, when I returned to Taiwan, I found that PD support groups were not common there. Our university hospital used to hold PD support group meetings,…

The Chichiawan Stream and its tributaries in central Taiwan are the last refuge of the critically endangered Formosan landlocked salmon Oncorhynchus formosanus. Over the past few decades, 11 check dams have been constructed in these streams to reduce sediment transport and to prevent the collapse of riverbanks. However, these dams are thought to be a primary factor in the habitat degradation that has led to a decline in salmon abundance. The dams have impacted the salmon by creating reproductive isolation, by reducing the number of accessible large boulders to provide refuge during typhoons, and…

1. Background In computer vision, image segmentation is the process that decomposes an image into multiple segments. The goal of this process is to partition an image into something more meaningful and easier for subsequent analyses. For example, for the image shown in Figure 1, human eyes can easily recognize that there are two persons walking on a beach. Apparently, they have just finished snorkeling. To computers, however, this image is nothing but an array of pixel data, with each image pixel (picture element) containing three different kinds of color values (Red, Green, and Blue). If we…

In recent decades, dam removal has become a frequently-used strategy for restoring natural stream habitats because dams deteriorate river channels and often lead to decreased diversity of species. Taiwan has many short and steep rivers in the high mountains, where strong rainfall creates high water velocity. As a result, the government constructed many check dams to prevent the collapse of riverbanks and to lessen sediment transport to lower elevations. As of 1999, Taiwan had over 3,000 check dams. The Chichiawan Stream and its tributaries in central Taiwan are the last refuge of the Formosan salmon. Dam…